Earthy Market Café

The 2012 edition of The List's Eating & Drinking Guide is out now – only £5.95 (+p&p).

This review is taken from the current (2012) edition.

With reclaimed wood panelling and rustic hues, this converted warehouse could easily be the set for a new Channel 4 cookery show (you half-expect to see Jamie or Hugh pottering about). Thankfully though, like the food market upstairs, the style doesn’t feel overly manufactured. The menu changes daily, right down to the sandwich fillings, in an attempt to exploit the freshest, tastiest ingredients available and display counter dishes like rainbow beetroot, walnuts and wild garlic or a cranberry and cauliflower couscous, awash with vibrant, verdant colours, lure you in seductively. The mixed salad plate is a good way to negotiate any resulting indecision, while a beef, pistachio and chilli kofte with ground chermoula and pea yoghurt tastes as good as it sounds. Virtually everything’s organic, local and free-range and there’s a discernible difference in quality accordingly. It’s not the cheapest – perfecting provenance comes at a price – but for many it’s a price worth digging into your pocket for. Of note are summer 2012 plans to to create a vegetable garden with options to be able to eat in the very polytunnels where the salads have bloomed.

• High point: Healthy, tasty, guilt-free food
• Low point: Could offer freshly-made juices or smoothies